Rose Umbrella
by Konsla
Summary: In which Hinata is Hinata, but over 100 years in the past, and not all entirely Hinata.


**Disclaimer- I do not own Naruto**

**A Prologue of Sorts**

**...**

Kameyama castle was quiet all but for the gentle din of chanting monks. They were practicing monastic funeral rites on the cremation grounds, and the rest of the castle was in mourning.

Lord Hiroaki had been the one to bring the monks for this death. He had traveled the day before to Gokurakuji temple retrieving the same monks who sent prayers for his six other sons that had died.

Yesterday, or maybe several days before, there was no way to tell with these sorts of deaths, Buddha had taken his last son, the heir to the Hyuuga clan and his last hope for the Hyuuga clan to continue through his male line.

His faith wavered as he watched the monks from his window. 'How cruel Buddha must be to take six of my sons' he thought. Six was supposed to be a lucky number, seven even luckier, and he had seven children in total. Yet the seven gods of luck hadn't touched his children, letting nearly all of them die sadly and prematurely. He decided then that his sole daughter would have to marry her close cousin in the main branch who would be next in line for the clan leader. That would be Hyuuga Yasuhira, a boy nearing eleven, the grandson of one of the elders, Hyuuga Tokizawa, who was in command of Koshigoe bay, the south-most region of Hyuuga territory. Hyuuga Takasune, his son who's body lay outside, died west, where the Senju and Uchiha antagonized each other at every altercation. It would not be long before the two declared war; Hiroaki could only hope that the Hyuuga clan would be left out of it, but they wouldn't have a choice if they continued to lose clan members there, or if one of those puerile clans attacked a village under their protection. He hoped it wouldn't come to that, but the Hyuuga clan was quickly thinning, and he would not let it disappear under his authority, not like Otsutsuki Sagisuke had several decades ago with the Otsutsuki clan.

Hiroaki stuck his chopsticks upright in a hemisphere of rice. It would have been inappropriate to do anywhere else, but doing so on the alter was a way of paying respects. He had done the same thing for all his other passed sons, even the ones who were not as venerated as Takasune.

Such as his first son to die, Shundai. It was a shameful affair given what killed him was the weight of a horse. Of course, he had only fallen off because of the arrow in his back. He had been sent with a scroll for Hyuuga Torizuka who was east, near the Nara, Yakama, and Akimichi clans, but none of them were fool enough to kill a Hyuuga; no, it had been simple bandits who'd been admiring Shundai's purple silk kimono, even under the hakama they could make out the expensive dye. Hiroaki had the men hung, but the damage was already done. They hadn't found Shundai until two days later after his horse returned without him. When the cause of death was determined by his horse falling on him, Hiroaki stripped his name of 'n' and 'dai', marking his grave as Hyuuga Shu.

Shu had been his second son, and after him, it was Shidzuma, his pride, and joy, his first son and the original heir. Shidzuma was nothing like Shu, he could ride a horse properly by eight and could shoot an arrow off one accurately by twelve. When he was small he learned how to fight large bodies, and when he grew large he relearned about small ones. Shidzuma even stood right with his strength and his legs and his weight in his stomach to keep his sword on right and always ready to fight. Greatest of all was his mind, knowing how to become the enemy but to never surrender even under the designs to deceive, and it was because of this sound logic and strong principles that Hiroaki was repeatedly able to trust Shidzuma and grant him many responsibilities. But Shidzuma, as exceptional as he was, was still killed just a few days away from his sixteenth birthday after arrogantly challenging Yamato Takeru an infamous samurai of Lord Moronao's to a fight in Kouzuke, outside of Hyuuga territory. Thus began the conflict with Lord Moronao's samurai, and the inevitable death of the rest of his sons.

Masasue while not the best fighter was certainly the most pious. Now Hiroaki regretted not sending him to the monks, it was not shameful to devote to Buddha's teachings, but after Shidzuma's death, Hiroaki made many bad decisions and sent Masasue with a warning to Lord Moronao's instead. In return, Moronao gave him Masasue's head in an empty bag of rice.

The twins Tadayoshi and Yoriyoshi, died together, they were found in Dewa River after the battle at Dannoura hill. Hiroaki himself had been fighting at a village threatened by rounin, they were worse than nukenin, not because of the rounins' skill but their numbers. The children of samurai often followed, and rounin had many children.

The most unexpected death was his youngest son, Ousu who'd been only six at the time. Hiroaki had him sent to Tosa with thirty men comparable to Daimyo Kozukenosuke's tatehaki, the sword-bearers of his prince. And yet not even the greatest branch members of the Hyuuga clan could protect Ousu from Moronao's wrath. It was shameful, their clan seemed to be in a decline since his father Tomomitsu's death.

He often wondered if the Hyuuga had become cursed, but he could think of any reason why such a thing would happen. Less than a year ago he had lost his wife, Miyazu, she was weak ever since their last child. He buried her under a Sakai tree, they were dear to the Gods, just as she was to him. With both her and their sons gone,

Just then he passed his daughter's room. He could hear chanting and on closer inspection, he recognized it as the Lotus Sutra.

"_Shu jo ken ko jin - people think:_

_Dai ka sho sho ji - 'This world is in a great fire._

_Ga shi do an non - The end is coming.'_

_Ten nin jo ju man - but really this world of mine is peaceful._

_On rin sho do kaku - It is filled with gods and good people._

_Shu ju ho sho gon - Its gardens, forests, and palaces_

_Ho ju ta ke ka - Are adorned with treasures;_

_Shu ju sho yu raku - Gem trees have fruits and flowers;_

_Sho ten gyaku ten ku - Living beings are enjoying themselves;_

_Jo sas shu gi gaku - And the gods are beating heavenly drums,_

_U man da ra ke - Pouring music and mandarava blossoms_

_San butsu gyu dai shu - On the Buddha and all assembled beings._

_Ga jo do fu ki - My land is pure and indestructible._

_Ni shu ken sho jin - But people think:_

_U fu sho ku no -˜It is full of sorrow, fear and pain,_

_Nyo ze shitsu ju man - and will soon burn away.'_

_Ze sho zai shu jo - Because of their evil karmas,_

_I aku go In nen - these sinful people cannot hear even the names_

_Ka a so gi ko - Of the Three Treasures_."

The Juryo verses from the 16th chapter she prayed, and the longer Hiroaki listened the more he realized how selfish he was acting. Taking all the sorrows for his sons and wife onto himself without a thought for his daughter Hinata.

He continued walking, with this in mind.

…

The reflection in the mirror made Hinata ill-tempered and afraid. It was not because she was extraordinarily ugly, or disfigured, but because she looked horrifying similar, no identical, to a dead woman. Many times she wondered if she was hunted or possessed so she prayed everyday and threw roasted soybeans to the four cardinal directions, but no amount of piety to Shinto gods and Buddha could make her devilish visions disappear.

In fact, it seemed as if the older she grew, the more she saw, and at five standing bare, spare for a light robe, in front of the mirror her fingers glided over her fifth ribs on each side until they met in the middle. There. It feels like she was stabbed there. Right by her heart, so close it scraped the bottom, but that can't be right because when she looks up her heart is out of her body in front of her eyes, golden, and warm, and so much like the sun that she can feel herself dying in _his _arms. She got too close to the sun was that it? Did she meet Amaterasu and die in her presence? Oh, that would be so sad, but it couldn't be Amaterasu for the sun she imagined was a man. And for some reason she loved him, she loved him in a way she couldn't yet understand, but nonetheless liked to think about. When she thought of him her whole being turned warm, just as if she were by him once more. And the more she saw herself the more she thought of him.

Catching her reflection in the koi pond left her crouching there for nearly an hour, watching the water's surface ripple until frail pictures of people she'd never met appeared and vanished so quickly she hardly believed they were ever there at all. But then the water turned into him, him with his gold hair and clear eyes that she couldn't yet make out the color of, and her hand reached out-

"Hinata!"

The water shattered as a hundred needles crashed down on it's stillness.

Hinata turned to her father, she was confused having not even realized that she was using chakra.

"What were you doing?" He asked not unkindly but his hand was firm on her head when he joined her by the water's edge.

"I don't know."

He frowned thinking she was lying to him. "Where did you learn that?"

She didn't know what to say. She hadn't learned it anywhere, nor had she knew what she was doing at all. Of course she knew about chakra, she had watched her older brothers use it when they'd been alive, but never thought to use it herself. "I," She felt a stutter coming on, and for some reason that made her feel very nostalgic. "I just did it."

'I just did it,' that was the best she could come up with, as poor of an explanation it was, it was the truth, she wouldn't lie to her father.

His frown deepened. He didn't like the answer, but at the same time, he knew she wasn't lying, not to him. So instead of punishing her, he'd only told her to not do it again, and Hinata scampered back to her room with a tickle in her mind and a name on her tongue as elusive as the color of the golden man's eyes.

...

**A/N: Hmmm, I don't know how I feel about this chapter or why I really wrote this at all. **

**Do you think I should have let out Hiroaki's part and just jumped to Hinata? Sorry for mistakes, I didn't really edit. **

**Be sure to let me know what you think :)**


End file.
